Toll in South Asian Floods Rises to 560

Ten more people have drowned in Bangladesh, raising the death toll from South Asian monsoon rains to 560, relief officials said Saturday.

The monsoon floods in the last month have destroyed crops and farms and killed hundreds throughout India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The death toll has been highest in Nepal, where rains and mudslides have killed an estimated 269 people, according to Nepal’s Interior Ministry.

In Bangladesh, six children and four men drowned Friday in three districts about 150 miles north of Dhaka, the capital, bringing the death toll to 133, relief officials said. Nearly one-third of the country has been flooded since last month, displacing or stranding nearly 6 million people, relief officials said.

Many flood victims have lost homes, crops, livestock and farm work. Schools have closed because they are being used as shelters for flood victims.

In India’s northeast, authorities stepped up relief efforts to prevent waterborne diseases from spreading among the more than 5 million people displaced or rendered homeless by floods.

In the eastern state of Bihar, 128 people have died since the onset of the monsoon rains in June, officials said. Assam state also has been hit hard, with 30 dead.

Meanwhile, large parts of northern and western India are facing their worst drought in 14 years.